Coronation Street’s Chris Fountain has opened up about the changes he endured after suffering a stroke.

The actor, best known for his role as Tommy Duckworth in the ITV soap, suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) last year.

Chris dialled 111 after waking up on a day in August unable to articulate his speech and he was told that brain clotting had caused him to suffer Transient Ischaemic Attack, commonly referred to as a mini-stroke.

Now, one year on from the event, Chris has been reflecting on the ordeal and how much his body has changed since the stroke happened.

Sharing a picture of himself in hospital on his Instagram, Chris said: ‘1 year ago today. Life can change in an instant, I’ve had to make a lot of changes but things have gotten so much better. Be as positive as you can be, live life to the full and do not give up, no matter how hard things get.’

Previously revealing that the stroke left him ‘speaking like a toddler’, Chris also shared a video to his followers and said: ‘It’s kind of been a weird thing to wrap my head around. Part of me is worrying thinking “am I going to have another one today”. But then part of me is also super proud of how I’ve recovered. My speech is pretty much back to normal, I’ve run a marathon, I’m fit again.

‘It’s been an interesting year. I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank everyone who has been supportive, who has sent me advice and sent me kind words. This time last year, I was staying in a hospital bed wondering what the hell is happening and here I am now feeling great.’

Chris was sacked from his role in Coronation Street after it emerged he was behind a masked rapper using lyrics in video about rape.

The YouTube clips, no longer available to view, featured Fountain wearing a Halloween mask as his violent rap alter-ego ‘The Phantom’ and included lyrics such as ‘rape a bitch on her birthday’.

The actor has previously spoken about how losing that job impacted his mental health.

He spoke on Scott Thomas’s Learning As I Go podcast and said: ‘That singular week in August 2013 just blew my entire life apart.’

‘All the foundations of what I’d built as a career just completely came crashing down.

‘And it was the start of a real downward spiral in terms of my mental health, my confidence.’

At the time, an ITV spokesperson said: ‘Chris Fountain’s contract with ITV has been terminated as a result of the unacceptable comments he made in a number of online clips.’

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